COOPER CITY — A judge has dismissed a lawsuit against Cooper City filed by a former commission candidate who sued after a city-ordered background check uncovered an arrest that never happened.

David Nall's lawsuit, filed in July, accused the city of damaging his reputation when it distributed incorrect information that he'd been arrested for credit card fraud in 1987. Nall, a financial controller for a construction firm, has never been arrested or convicted of a crime.

Broward Circuit Judge John Murphy III dismissed the case against the city on Friday. Nall's lawsuit is ongoing against Samba Holdings Inc. and IntelliCorp Records Inc.

During Friday's hearing, the city argued it had absolute immunity "no matter how malicious, reckless or improperly motivated the publication of false information about Nall is alleged to have been."

On Monday, Nall said he was disappointed the city was not held accountable.

"I would like to see them face the reality that they can't just go around doing what they want to do without repercussions," he added.

His attorney, Walter "Skip" Campbell, said Nall has 30 days to appeal.

"Cities do not have absolute immunity in all cases," Campbell said. "I haven't really decided whether or not to appeal. I do think it screwed up his political career."

Commissioner John Sims said he does not think cities should be immune from such "colossal" errors. And he's worried it might happen again.

"All information needs to be verified by an independent party before it's submitted to anyone," Sims said. "I don't even think staff or the commission should see it. One person should be in charge of the information."

In September 2010, Cooper City ordered background checks on candidates running in the November election and received bad information from a vendor that Nall had been arrested for credit card fraud. His lawsuit claimed the false information hurt his campaign. Nall lost the election to Lisa Mallozzi, the incumbent.

The lawsuit seeks more than $15,000 in damages and says Nall suffered emotional and physical stress over the incident.

Nall said city officials did not contact him to verify the information after getting the background check report on Sept. 13.

The city did not post the false information on its website but gave the report in September to five people who requested it — including Mayor Debby Eisinger.

After Nall contacted Cooper City officials about the error, they published a notice in the Sun Sentinel and on the city's website saying Nall had a clean record and apologizing for releasing false information about him.

Samba, a city vendor based in New Mexico, hired Ohio-based IntelliCorp to conduct background checks on commission candidates.

Attorneys for both companies could not be reached for comment despite two calls to their offices.